Yachting Australia

Perfect day on the water for Belcher and Page at 470 Worlds

The three wins have given the defending World Champions a six point lead over the Portuguese crew of Alvaro Marinho and Miguel Nunes with one day of the qualifying series remaining.

 

The crews enjoyed conditions which were a stark contrast to day one, with 12 to 18 knots of breeze allowing for good racing throughout the fleets.

 

“Today was a great day for Malcolm and I, winning all three races,” said Belcher. “We feel very comfortable in these conditions and with the groups split into three it made it a little easier.

 

“We’re really happy with how things are progressing but we are focusing on each race as it comes, it's going to be a long week so see what happens towards the end,” he said.  “However, to win three races in a single day is quite special. I’ve only managed this four times now, with two of them being in the last two World Championships so it's a good sign.”

 

Page was also equally enthusiastic about their performance.

 

“It wasn’t a bad day at the office today,” said Page. “We had good speed, ensured that we kept things simple and didn’t throw the dice, we just made sure that we played with the competition.

 

“Once you’re out in front you’re in a controlling position, we were able to keep a safe distance and while we could have gone faster we couldn’t ask for more at this point of the regatta with four bullets from four races,” he said. “Though we’re not going to let it affect our racing, winning regattas is not about winning races, it’s about getting consistent results and there’s no need to be heroes at this stage, we’re putting together the building blocks for later in the event.”

 

Fellow Australians Sam Kivell and Will Ryan are well and truly in the mix after the opening four races, with the pair currently sitting eighth overall.

 

Kivell and Ryan finished the day with a seventh, a fifth and a sixth to be just 10 points off second position.

 

“Today wasn’t our greatest day on the water but it was enough,” said Ryan. “The real racing starts in the gold fleet and after a tough day for both of us yesterday, despite a very nice result, the focus today was just trying to get three keeper results.”

 

Australian’s Elise Rechichi and Belinda Stowell are currently 24^th in the women’s fleet.

 

Rechichi and Stowell began the day with a 14^th, before a 21^st and an 11^th to be in the middle of a tight group on the leader board.

 

The pair is extremely pleased to have been able to compete in all three races on Monday as Stowell continues to recover well from a back injury.

 

In the men’s fleet Scott Cotton and Rob Size are 44^th overall, just ahead of Matthew and Robert Crawford in 48^th.

 

Alexander and Partick Conway are in 59^th with Matt and Ben Taylor one place further behind in 60^th.

 

Racing continues in Barcelona on Tuesday with the final medal race to be held on Saturday.

 

Full results can be found at http://worlds.470.org/eventsites/results_main.asp?eventid=66686.

 

For more information on the Australian Sailing Team visit www.australiansailingteam.com.au and follow the team on Twitter at www.twitter.com/AusSailingTeam.